Welcome to my exclusive Subscriber’s Salon!
You are in a section of timweedlun.com reserved solely for my valued Email subscribers. Throughout the year, for a limited window, you’ll get an exclusive sneak peek at my latest artworks. But that's not all – you also get the extraordinary opportunity to acquire them at a generous 15% discount before they go on view to the general public, whether that’s through exhibitions at my gallery, art shows, or online.
This month, I present three captivating paintings along with a bonus value study, all available at a discounted rate until October 1, 2023:
1. Hanging Around
Artful Upcycling
First up is Hanging Around, an 18-inch round oil painting on wood panel, framed with sleek metal elegance. While its gallery price stands at $735, for you, until October 1, 2023, it’s yours for $625. Should you prefer it frameless, the price drops to $550.
The inspiration for this piece came from a sun-fried outdoor clock. I hate generating more junk for landfills and saw that the perfectly sound frame just needed a painted panel to turn it into a unique artwork.
Being a realist painter, I am a fan of trompe l’oeil work which seeks to create the illusion of 3D objects. Suspended grapes, which are a popular subject matter for these paintings, took the spotlight for my new project. As you can see from my reference photo setup, I used an old cutting board as my backdrop and spritzed the grapes with water to give them a dewy freshness.
As the painting evolved, capturing the cutting board's intricate grain with its countless shades of tan, gray, and brown, made for a surprisingly complex challenge. I originally captured the shifts of color made by spray bottle on the cutting board, but in the end, I opted for a more unified tan background that wouldn’t compete with the subject matter. I was pleased with the final result, particularly the realism of the different shadow tones against the grain.
Early on in the development of this painting, I realized it wasn’t going to be a true trompe l’oeil. Can you tell why from the photo of me holding it? If you guessed it’s because of the size of the grapes, you’d be correct. That would be one freakishly large grape cluster in real life!
Given the frame's circular design evokes a wine barrel's top ring, I could imagine the painting adding a touch of class to someone’s wine cellar.
2. Red Grapes
Correcting Dimensions and Perceptions
Next, Red Grapes, a 16x20 oil painting on wood panel with frame. Valued at $725 in the gallery, it’s yours for $620 until October 1, 2023. Sans frame, it’s priced at $540.
One of the more famous practitioners of trompe l’oeil was William Harnett (1848-1892). The 9x12 black and white value study I did in the photo here is copied after his 1886 painting, The Old Violin.
As a subscriber perk, this unframed study is yours at $250.
Inspired by Harnett and learning from Hanging Around, I sized these grapes accurately. I also realized I didn’t need to reinvent the wheel creating the illusion of a wood panel when I could just leave the actual wood panel alone and paint the grapes on top. In this sequence of photos, you can see how painting progressed.
First, I gessoed the area of the panel that would be grapes or string only. Then, after sketching out my guidelines with charcoal, I used transparent browns to render the shadow areas against the wood grain. Then, from dark to light, I started bringing the grapes to life. It looks a bit in the right-hand photo like the grapes are covered in snow, doesn’t it?
After I completely covered the canvas, the grapes were veering towards blue-purple — which would fine for concord grapes, but that’s not what these were. I corrected the colors to be more infused with red, which is what you see now in the final product.
3. Bowl of Cherries
A Delightful Discovery
Last but not least, Bowl of Cherries, an 18x24 oil painting on canvas board with frame. With a gallery price of $780 you can enjoy it for $660 until October 1, 2023. Without the frame, it’s yours for $585.
This piece began as a personal challenge inspired by a fellow artist’s remark about other artists who painted bowls of cherries. It occurred to me that cherries were a fruit I hadn’t yet tackled. Since cherry season was underway, all I needed was the appropriate bowl.
That ended up being a silver pedestal bowl that I’d been hauling around for years but never actually used. The bowl’s history has sentimental value for me because it was won in a dog show back in 1969 by our family’s miniature schnauzer, Ginger. For years afterwards, Mom kept the bowl gleaming and polished in her china cabinet. I think it might have seen occasional use as a nut or candy dish. After inheriting it, I wasn’t as diligent about its upkeep but when I thought of it for my still life, I got out the polish, restored it to brilliance and it took center stage.
The final painting harbors more color than meets the eye. As you can see from my painting palette at the time, there were various shades of yellow, orange and greens used in the cherry stems, and light blues and purples that showed up in the reflected highlights of the bowl. All of them work together to breathe life into the seemingly limited color scheme.
Thank you for diving into the stories and thoughts behind my recent work. If any of these paintings resonate with you, feel free to reach out to me before October 1, 2023. Explore my other paintings elsewhere on this website. And remember, once you acquire one painting, you unlock a permanent 15% discount on all future purchases. [Note: For non-San Diego residents, all prices reflected on this site, whether full-price or discounted, do not reflect the cost of shipping charges if you live outside the city.]